Asia - Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan; Verdussen - Grande Tartarie - 1725

Technical data

Title: Great Tartary.
Author: I. Peeters.
Engraver: attributed to Jacobus Harrewijn (1660–1727); plate unsigned.
Designer: I. Peeters.
Publisher: Juan Bautista Verdussen.
Place: Antwerp.
Era: 1725.
Technique: copper-plate engraving on copper, executed with etching and burin, with period hand coloring at the borders and on some ornamental elements.
Support: laid paper.
Dimensions: sheet 19 × 20 cm; impression 16 × 14 cm.
Composition: single plate with a vertical center fold, graduated border and an ornamental cartouche in the lower right corner.

Description

A map of Great Tartary, a designation by which European cartography referred to a vast aggregation of territories in northern and central Asia. The representation extends from regions near the Caspian Sea toward Siberia, Mongolia and territories bordering China, reaching to the Arctic Ocean coasts in the north.

The territory is described through a dense network of place-names, waterways and regional divisions. Mountain ranges and forested areas are rendered with small figurative marks, in keeping with the cartographic conventions of the period. In the south appear references to Persia, India and China, which frame the broad region depicted.

The manual coloring emphasizes the borders and some decorative details, leaving legible the minute work of the engraving. In the lower right corner, a cartouche with dynamic shapes, enriched with vegetal motifs and a small shield, encloses the title and the scale in leagues. The graduated frame completes the scientific and ornamental layout of the plate.

Historical-artistic note

The map belongs to the tradition of small-format atlases, conceived to offer a concise description of the world through plates easy to consult. The engraving style blends graphic precision, richness of nomenclature and restrained decoration, appropriate to the print’s size.

The term “Tartary” here preserves the historical-geographic meaning of a vast area comprising different territories and peoples, rather than that of a single state. The plate thus also documents how Europe in the early eighteenth century organized and represented knowledge about the interior of the Asian continent.

Condition Report

Copy with a vertical central fold of editorial origin, lightly browned. Paper with widespread light oxidation, tiny foxing and scattered brown spots, more evident on the verso. Margins present on all sides, with modest irregularities and mild signs of handling.

Clear impression, with good legibility of the nomenclature and preserved coloring. White verso, with transparency of the cartographic drawing and localized brownish halos.